The unemployment rate in Kalamazoo County drops to 9.7 percent in October

Mark Bugnaski / Gazette FileAlthough Kalamazoo County's unemployment rate improved in October, a state official said that may be a result of fewer people in the labor pool than a year ago. In this April 20, 2009 file photo Liz Happy appears optimistic as she interviews with Kalamazoo Public Schools recruiter Maria Ferguson, during the 21st Annual Education Career Fair at WMU. "You've got to be positive," Happy said. "In this economy, people get negative. There's jobs out there. You've just got to be on your game."

KALAMAZOO — The unemployment rate in Kalamazoo County dropped nearly a full percentage point in October, to 9.7 percent.

And that compares nicely to the rate in October 2009.

The jobless rate for Kalamazoo County last month improved from 10.3 percent in October 2009 and from 10.6 percent in September 2010.

But the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth says that while improvement is certainly welcomed, the September-to-October improvement appears to be a seasonal gain — public universities like Western Michigan University finally filling out their job rosters. And the year-over-year improvement may be a result of more people leaving the area to look for work elsewhere.

Of 131,200 people in the county’s labor force in October 2010, approximately 12,750 were in the hunt for jobs.

Leonidas Murembya, regional labor analyst for the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, reported that the jobless rates for all the counties in the region dropped from September to October, by an average of five-tenths of a percentage point.

“Of the usual seasonal employment changes, we have the big public schools that return to full staffing in October and that adds a good chunk of employment,” Murembya said. “In Kalamazoo County, that was (a gain of) around 2,300 jobs.”

Seasonal hiring in October does not include hiring for the holiday season. “That probably will be reflected in the November numbers,” Murembya said.

He said the effect of public sector jobs, especially in counties with big public universities, really tends to show. “That’s a big one that affects employment gains,” he said.

“There was a little bit of a job cut in leisure and hospitality (those industries),” he said, “but it wasn’t big enough to offset the gains.”

He said that although Kalamazoo County’s civilian labor force was up 1,150 people from September to October (it grew to 131,700 people), there were still 850 fewer workers in the labor force than a year ago, according to state figures.

“We’ve been losing people — the labor pool,” Murembya said, “People have either been leaving the labor force or going to other places to look for jobs. That kind of makes the unemployment rates look better.”

He said once they go out of the labor force the state doesn’t count them as someone looking for a job.

“The third factor that I can emphasize is it looks like at least the layoffs in manufacturing have tempered, have stopped,” he said. “I don’t see any big hiring in manufacturing but at least I don’t see any big layoffs either. That contributes to the numbers looking better.”

He said that although Southwest Michigan and the state as a whole are not yet seeing good times, “maybe we’ve reached the bottom and maybe we are starting to get up.”

“I can’t say whether or not we are going to fall down again,” he said. “I don’t know.”

Jobless rates also declined from moth to month in and year-over-year in Allegan, Barry, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties.

Statewide, the jobless rate in October jobless rate was 12.0 percent, down from 12.3 percent in September and from 13.7 percent in October 2009.